Feminist Visual Artist – Paintings, Mixed Media and Etchings

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‘Thinking about Painting’ and its process is a topic that I try to depict every now and then. I like to imagine different moments when between viewing the subject and then turning away, retaining aspects of the image before the hand conveys it to paint and canvas.

The black light globe indicates the moment when the artist looks from the subject and is momentarily ‘blinded’ as thoughts turn inward to the imagination where the mind delivers aspects of the remembered image to another mental place. One eye is obscured as thoughts about paint and how its qualities and manipulations are organised before the hand moves to depict some of the image. At the same time the warm colours situated on the artist’s head indicate the ‘ah ha’ moment when the remembered image and paint manipulation coalesce.

The composition became clearer as I moved through layers going from more detailed and complex to simplified. I often put too much into the composition but usually cut away unnecessary detail eventually. Colour as an elements receded as I used a tonal less busy paint combination.

Like this:

Background

This quick portrait sketch was unplanned but came about because of two separate incidents.

I used a very small smooth surfaced gesso panel suitable for a brush stroke demonstration in a painting workshop organised by several art students earlier this year. It was one of several different sized panels that were suitable for experimenting with glazes combined with different impasto textures such as double and triple loaded brush or palette knife application into a wet glaze rather than onto a dry surface. A wet in wet instead of the usual method of wet on dry created impasto strokes where some edges blurred and bled into the under painted glaze.

My demonstrations on the larger panels were clearer than on this small almost constricting sized panel (as I usually work on a large surface except for etching). The few brushstrokes depicting aspects of landscape features were hastily wiped off (and cast aside under other work in my studio) after the demo. because I couldn’t see an image developing in the paint.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and I wondered if there was any hope for some remaining etchings that were grubby around the edges and couldn’t be turned into mixed media with gouache, pastel or charcoal. Time for some ripping up and throwing shreds around. One shredded etching landed on the gesso panel from the demo. The start of something?

The second situation involved one of the students who recently staged an exhibition and it was a sell out. I was overjoyed and an image came up and coalesced around the piece of etching and the gesso panel containing the torn etching. It happened quickly so that my process of recording stages didn’t happen.

The Artist, 2014, mixed media 20×25 cm

The images about two mental aspects about this artist are read from right to left. On the right hand side is a profile image that is meant to express the uncertainty of pre-exhibition hesitation when a person hopes that their work is met with an appreciative audience. Both images are placed on an easel. On the left the artist’s transformed image, depicted in a way where the image has become the paint and is not quite formed, is placed mostly within a loosely painted picture frame. The partly enclosing frame also dissolves in overpainting. A mental transition and sense of energy and excitement was conveyed by a red background.